Corporate groups outside the US are often controlled by a complex of ownership links, which typically form a pyramidal structure: a private holding company sits at the top of a control pyramid of several tiers of companies; firms in the lowest tier are the group's publicly listed companies. The usual practice of expropriation in such groups is to pass bad assets to companies down the pyramid and to pass the proceeds up the pyramid via internal transactions. For this collection Larry Lang has selected some of the most significant previously published articles by leading academics which investigate this process and its consequences. The volume explores the nature of ownership structure in countries outside the US and examines how controlling owners expropriate minority shareholders. It includes articles which analyse the pros and cons of the various finance and accounting issues resulting from this separation of ownership and control, and presents some country-specific studies which examine the impact of this disjunction.

The editor has written an authoritative introduction which provides explanatory information and points the way for future research in this area.